Gail Borden library offers much more than books

My name is Denise Raleigh and I am the director of marketing, development and communications for the Gail Borden Public Library.

My title is a mouthful, but it means if you haven't been to the library lately, I need to do better. Bob Musinski, a Daily Herald Neighbor editor, knew that I wrote a column in years past and asked if I would contribute here. I am delighted that he asked.

I am a lifelong library lover, so when the opportunity to work at Gail Borden Library arose three years ago, I signed on and it has been a fantastic experience.

It is a tremendous time to be working in this area with a renaissance pervading the library district with new residents, structures and businesses arriving daily to complement an area rich in volunteerism and community-minded organizations. It is unbelievable the amount of helpful, entertaining and educational items the library has in different formats -- books, CDs, DVDs, premium online databases and now, Playaways (self-contained audio books). And, of course, we have a professional friendly staff that can provide personal assistance.

If you haven't yet visited the beautiful prairie-style Gail Borden Public Library building that sits on the east side of the Fox River on Grove Avenue, you must. Put a visit to the library first on your list. We have a tremendous collection of materials that one would find in a traditional library -- and, many times, we have more.

At present, we have a life-size Lincolnesque log cabin in the middle of the stunning library rotunda by the main staircase. It is part of our Tapestry of Freedom project that started in early February when more than 4,000 people attended the Black History Family Festival on Feb. 2.

In addition to the cabin, we are hosting a store in Youth Services courtesy of the Elgin Area Historical Society and many Civil War and Lincoln artifacts are on the second floor. The exhibit will culminate with the National Endowment for the Humanities/American Library Association traveling exhibit "Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation," at the library from April 17 to May 30.

On the Internet front, we hope many of the youth around here are charging up their cameras to become 2-minute videographers. A video contest last year has grown into StoryTubes, where we are partnering with other libraries and publishers so that kids in grades 1-6 can talk about their favorite book on YouTube for a chance to win prizes.

Kids can make a 2-minute-or-shorter video about their favorite book and upload it to YouTube. The video can be uploaded to the Web site storytubes.info, with a link of the video sent to the National StoryTubes Contest.

StoryTubes videos can be entered beginning April 1. Categories are: Hair-Raising Tales; From or For the Heart; Of Heroes and Heroines; and Facts, Fads and Phenoms. Each week, the top 10 videos in each category will be featured for voting.

Voting will then begin and happen each week in May. At the end of each week, one lucky contestant will win $500 in books. Their sponsoring organization (school, library or designated organization for home-schooled youth) will receive $1,000 in books.

For more information about the Tapestry of Freedom, StoryTubes and the myriad programs at the library, visit the library Web site at www.gailborden.info.

Other things that you should know about the Gail Borden Public Library are:

• The Gail Borden Public Library has been serving this community for more than 120 years, since 1874.

• More than 760,000 people visited the library in 2007.

• The library serves approximately 125,000 people.

• The library collection includes approximately 457,000 items.

• More than 77 percent of people in the community are registered library cardholders.

• People in our community borrowed more than 1,362,329 items from the library in 2007.

• A total of 34,543 people attended myriad programs that included story times, film festivals and environmental programming in 2007.

• The library will be building a 10,000-square-foot branch library (expandable to 30,000 square feet) that will include many environmentally sustainable features near the intersection of Randall and Bowes roads. We expect groundbreaking in the near future and completion in 2009.

We know we can reach giant goals when we team up with people in this community. The library has received many awards at the national, state and local levels including "Library of the Year," "Martin Luther King, Jr. Humanitarian Award," "Slow Global Warming Visionary Award" and more due to the vibrant partnership between community members and organizations and the library.

We are good listeners and we know that our job is to serve this community.